Today's enterprises and governments generate an enormous number of electronic documents every day. For example, employees of a government agency may draft thousands of internal memoranda in a single day. Many of these electronic documents are only used for a short period of time and may be discarded or edited freely. For example, an employee of a business may write a draft sales report that is not subsequently used. Documents that may be freely discarded or edited are termed “ephemeral documents.” In contrast, other electronic documents should be preserved for later reference. For example, an enterprise may wish to maintain electronic copies of contract documents for several years. Electronic documents that are preserved for later reference are referred to as “electronic records.” In many circumstances, an electronic document may initially be an ephemeral document, but may later be declared to be an electronic record.
When an electronic document is declared to be an electronic record, the behavior of the electronic document changes. For example, after an electronic document is declared to be an electronic record, the electronic document may not be edited or deleted by particular users. In another example, after an electronic document is declared to be an electronic record, the electronic document may not be accessed without special permission.
An organization may use a document management system (DMS) to manage its electronic documents. A DMS is a computer system used to manage electronic documents. For instance, a DMS may be configured to track and store electronic documents. In another instance, a DMS may be used to implement document retention policies for electronic documents, including ephemeral documents and electronic records. A document retention policy of a document is a policy that governs the retention of the document. Organizations may have many different document retention policies. In general, ephemeral documents and electronic records are subject to different sets of document retention policies. For example, an organization may have a document retention policy that specifies that ephemeral documents must be deleted within one year from the time they were last modified. In this example, the organization may have a document retention policy that specifies that electronic records must be preserved for at least seven years.
Document retention policies may be designed for a wide variety of purposes. In one example, document retention policies may be designed to ensure compliance with governmental or organizational regulations. In another example, document retention policies may be designed to serve a variety of business purposes, such as preserving electronic documents for purposes of non-repudiation of contracts, maintenance of organizational memory, compliance with electronic discovery orders, and other business purposes. In a third example, an organization may design its document retention policies to expedite the deletion of ephemeral documents to reduce the organization's data storage costs.
Typically, organizations store ordinary electronic documents and electronic records in separate repositories. For example, employees of an enterprise may create and edit electronic documents stored on a first file server. In this example, when an electronic document is declared to be an electronic record, the electronic document is moved from the first file server to a second file server. After the electronic document is moved to the second file server, the electronic document is subject to special document retention policies.